Did I stall my cycle?

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That's ok to use.

 

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i would do a water change bring ammonia to 1 ppm and let it cycle naturally. i think you have added enough bacteria from mature live rock, turbostart and now moving another media over. i would let it run its course. bringing ammonia down a little will help cycle faster.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

i would do a water change bring ammonia to 1 ppm and let it cycle naturally. i think you have added enough bacteria from mature live rock, turbostart and now moving another media over. i would let it run its course. bringing ammonia down a little will help cycle faster.

Ok, will do. I’ll start making water!

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Ok, since adding the second bag of media yesterday I am now cycling. I’m showing .75 ammonia, .25 Nitrites, and 20ppm Nitrates. I am preparing to do a W/C today to lower the Nitrates. Any thoughts??

I guess the second bag of media was enough to finally kick it off.

i would do a water change bring ammonia to 1 ppm and let it cycle naturally. i think you have added enough bacteria from mature live rock, turbostart and now moving another media over. i would let it run its course. bringing ammonia down a little will help cycle faster.

 

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great, its back on track. looks like it just need a little nudge and you gave it. i would wait and let the cycle end and do water change to bring nitrates down.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

great, its back on track. looks like it just need a little nudge and you gave it. i would wait and let the cycle end and do water change to bring nitrates down.

Wait for the cycle to end then do a W/C? I was thinking a W/C now to reduce nitrates. Yes, no?

 

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either way will be fine. there is no harm now or later.

 

[AlexReef100]

I had a similar situation trying to cycle my 225. I added about 50lbs of dry rock, 25lbs of live rock, and 50lbs of live sand. The over the course of several weeks, I would add more live sand from my old tank as well as add about 10 gallons of water from my old tank each week. I never saw my ammonia get above 2ppm, I used multiple tests and never got a reading above 2(was usually 0). To be safe I waited the standard 6 weeks for the cycle to finish and just added livestock slowly over the course of about 2-3 weeks along with more live rock from my old tank. The tank is now fully stocked and has been for a little over a week. I did a test the other night and I'm now finally starting to see a low reading on my nitrate tests (barely 2.5ppm).

 

[Dragonreef202]

with the amount of rock I think it took awhile to get a reading because of the rock introducing bacteria to your tank. If I do another tank and have to cycle i'll do the raw shrimp. That seems to work . At least you got some readings and it's going in the right direction

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

I had a similar situation trying to cycle my 225. I added about 50lbs of dry rock, 25lbs of live rock, and 50lbs of live sand. The over the course of several weeks, I would add more live sand from my old tank as well as add about 10 gallons of water from my old tank each week. I never saw my ammonia get above 2ppm, I used multiple tests and never got a reading above 2(was usually 0). To be safe I waited the standard 6 weeks for the cycle to finish and just added livestock slowly over the course of about 2-3 weeks along with more live rock from my old tank. The tank is now fully stocked and has been for a little over a week. I did a test the other night and I'm now finally starting to see a low reading on my nitrate tests (barely 2.5ppm).

That’s good. I’m in no rush just seemed like I messed something up at first. Usually with my previous method (shrimp) I would start to see some movement after a week.

 

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I personally an not a big advocate of adding just simply pure ammonia and letting tank cycle. I prefer shrimp method as it's not just adding ammonia but also many other organics and carbon sources that pure ammonia won't provide.
These carbons and organics can end up as fuel to certain strains of bacteria that otherwise won't be present in numbers.

 

[lapin]

Nothing like shrimp guts to start a bacteria outbreak

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

I personally an not a big advocate of adding just simply pure ammonia and letting tank cycle. I prefer shrimp method as it's not just adding ammonia but also many other organics and carbon sources that pure ammonia won't provide.
These carbons and organics can end up as fuel to certain strains of bacteria that otherwise won't be present in numbers.

This was the first and last time I start a cycle this way. Lesson learned!

 

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Wrong post